The Kunena team has announce the arrival of Kunena 5.1.9 [K 5.1.9] which is now available for download as a native Joomla extension for J! 3.9.x. This version addresses most of the issues that were discovered in K 5.1 and issues discovered during the development stages of K 5.1. This is a maintenance release.

Idea
Would you like to join the team?

Over the past four years the people who have worked tirelessly to create Kunena and see it become the most
popular extension on the JED
have always been keen for others to lend a hand and give back to the community that helps us all. Today we announce a new feature, specially developed for this site, that makes it possible for people to join the exciting challenge to help Kunena grow and become even better!

If you think you have what it takes to help, as a forum moderator, a developer or as someone who is prepared to test new versions under development, then we would love to hear from you.

To become part of the team you should visit our
team page
. At the top of the page is a link that takes you to a form where you can enter your details, tell us a little about yourself, and in what area you think you would be most suited. It's a very simple process that should take you only a few minutes

We're always on the lookout for people to help moderate the forum (especially in the non-English categories) and to guide other Kunena users to find the answers to their questions and help them solve their problems. We're also looking for enthusiastic people to test new versions of Kunena to make sure that, when they're released to the community, the features work as we would all hope them to. Developers: here is your chance to show your skill and to learn from some of the best Joomla/PHP programmers, to help us build the best web-based discussion forum extension for Joomla that we possibly can.

Do you feel you have the experience and the qualities that we're looking for in a team player? If you do, visit our
team page
, fill out the online application form and we'll be in touch with you soon. Keep in mind that some conditions apply (see the online application form for details) and not all applicants will be successful.

Attachments:

This is a reminder to people who are considering joining the Kunena team.

If you are considering being part of the team there are a few important points that we would like you to remember:

(1) If you have not posted anything on the forum then your application to join the team will not be accepted. We are looking for people who have already contributed to the project in some measurable way.

(2) If you really want to help the work of the project you can assist by posting messages on the forum that actually help the work of the project. As a minimum, to be a forum moderator you will need to be able to demonstrate that you have a commitment (and some knowledge of Kunena) in helping other people with their questions, difficulties, problems and feedback. We generally require that someone should have written more than 100 messages on the forum before they will be considered suitable as a forum moderator here.

(3) We require people who are committed to giving genuine feedback that assists the work of the team. The way to give feedback is to make regular use of the forum or to assist with the task of documentation. You will not improve your chances of being accepted as a team member if you

Ask "When will the next version of Kunena be publicly available?"

Ask "How can I get hold of a development version of Kunena so that I can play around with it?"

Post only questions about all the problems that you are having. (Remember, there are other people who have problems, too, and if you can help them your help will be appreciated.)

Do not show consideration towards others who use this forum

(4) You will improve your chances of being accepted as a team member if your application explains how you think you can help and where you think your skills can best be utilised. Simply writing, "I think I am good enough" is not good enough.

The principal, official mechanism for communication between members of the Kunena project is the forum at
www.kunena.org
. Other informal communication occurs “off-line” from the forum via real-time/instant message chats on Skype, GooglePlus, GitHub or email. We do not intend to quantify how these different groupings interact with one another. Our intent is to develop a communication plan for the co-dependent groups listed above.

To the extent that members of the Kunena project are prepared to use different methods to communicate with one another, there are management issues we must address to ensure that the success of the project remains our number one aspirational goal: we do not want our collective aspirations devalued because of communication problems.

The overriding principle is that membership of the Kunena project is voluntary. Although we accept that everyone participating in Kunena does so autonomously and voluntarily, and because of the high level of co-dependence between management, design, development, testing and forum moderation, we have to accept sacrifices must be made with regards to the extent of individual autonomy.

The Kunena project is a team effort - a collaborative effort. The success or failure of the project depends on disciplined collaboration.

To become a member of the management team, the design team, the development team and the forum moderation team is to be recognised by your peers as able to make a valuable contribution. To become a member of one of these teams is therefore a privilege. To remain as a member of one of these teams, however, is accepting that there is also an obligation to contribute to the team's goals and, in a broader sense, towards achieving the aspirational objectives of the other teams, too. To remain as a member of one of these teams is accepting that there are conditions attached to the privilege of becoming a member.

Demonstrated capability to work in a multidisciplinary team environment and a commitment to the business objectives of the project.

Design team

Demonstrated capability and aptitude for software design.

Demonstrated experience in software development with the focus on end-user usability, functionality and easy of operability.

Commitment to open-source software development. This is demonstrated by the willingness to share software design ideas openly with other team members and to assist other team members in achieving an open-source software product for the benefit of the broad user community.

Development team

Demonstrated capability and aptitude to work in a multidisciplinary software team environment. This can be demonstrated by the member's involvement in the project's GitHub or other source code repositories used in open-source software projects.

Demonstrated capability for project team management to co-ordinate the efforts of other members of the team.

Demonstrated involvement within the team to develop, review and test software.

Commitment to open-source software development. This is demonstrated by the willingness to share source code openly with other team members and to assist other team members in achieving an open-source software product for the benefit of the broad user community.

Testing team

Capability and commitment to work in a multidisciplinary software team environment. This can be demonstrated by the involvement in the project's GitHub and/or on the forum at
www.kunena.org
.

Demonstrated involvement within the team to review and test software and to provide direct feedback to the development team

Commitment to open-source software development. This is demonstrated by the willingness to share the results of the member's testing, openly with other team members, and to assist (where they may be able to do so) other team members in achieving an open-source software product for the benefit of the broad user community.

Moderation team

Demonstrated ability to facilitate technical discussions in an online, web-based discussion forum environment. This can be demonstrated by the member's involvement on the forum at
www.kunena.org
(or elsewhere).

An understanding of the problems confronting people who have differing technical skills (including those who have little or no technical background), to develop empathy with them and to guide people to find the best possible solutions to their needs without compromising the integrity of the Kunena project.

Demonstrated involvement within the team to maintain an awareness of the goals of design and development teams and to provide feedback to those areas where there are potential risks or threats to those objectives.

Commitment to open-source software development. This is demonstrated by the willingness to share the feedback from the broad user community, openly with other team members, and to assist (where they may be able to do so) other team members in resolving problems when they occur.

Conditions of membership

Acceptance of the undertaking, and an ongoing commitment, to the responsibilities of the team.

Demonstrated ongoing involvement in team activities

An understanding that the standards we set for team members individually apply equally to all members of the team as a whole.

Courtesy to others at all times. We acknowledge to one another that we're volunteers, each with our own personal needs and priorities.

Tolerance and understanding that there will be times when your ideas will differ from someone else's and that compromises have to be made when difficulties arise.

Conditions for removing team members

If a member is unable or unwilling to meet the conditions and standards we have set for ourselves then that person may resign their membership or a decision may be made to retire such people if the team feels that their work would progress better.

Where a member of one of the teams mentioned above retires, we will remove their privileged access to the forum and from other informal communication mediums (e.g. Skype).

If a team member has not made a contribution for an extended period of time, we will assume that they are no longer prepared to make the commitment to the project and take action as we see appropriate. For the purposes of defining “extended period of time”, the assumption is three months; evidence of “contribution” is a message posted on the forum at
www.kunena.org
.